Walk Me Home
by LemonStar
Summary: ..Enjolras/Eponine.. "You don't have to stay." She tells him this every time she works the late shift and has the responsibility of closing. He shrugs. "I don't mind."


…

"You don't have to stay."

She tells him this every time she works the late shift and has the responsibility of closing.

He shrugs. "I don't mind."

And that's what he always tells her in response before he goes back to one of his heavy law textbooks open on the table in front of him.

She turns down the lights, making sure he still has enough to read by, and she hums to herself as she wipes down the counter and tables and stacks chairs. He used to offer to help her but the look she gave him keeps him from asking now. This is her job and she can more than handle it on her own.

At last, once the last mug is washed and drying, she unties the black apron from around her waist and leaves it in the bin beneath the counter. He is already standing from the table, grunting as he stretches his arms and his back cracks. He puts his books away in his bag and he stacks his chair before she can.

They step outside and he waits as she turns off the last of the lights and securely locks the door of the Musain Café.

"You don't have to walk me home."

She always says this to him even after they begin walking down the sidewalk, space between them but still close enough where their arms brush together.

He shrugs. "I was heading this way anyway."

And that's what he always tells her in response even though they both know his apartment is in the opposite direction.

Sometimes, they don't talk. They will walk and enjoy the quietness of the night around them and when they get to the front door of her apartment building, they bid one another good night and he lingers a moment more until she's inside before turning and heading back in the direction they have just walked, heading home now himself.

Sometimes, they talk during their walks. School and work and their shared friends and the newest case he is working on and her newest collection of photographs which will be hung in the student center on campus.

And on these nights, after they talk for six blocks and stop at her door, they both have a reluctance on their faces, as if neither really want their conversation to end.

Enjolras stares at her, his eyes focused on her eyes and nothing else, and then he gives her a faint smile and a slight head nod. "Good night, Eponine," he says quietly.

Eponine looks at him and sometimes, she gets the strangest urge to kiss him on the cheek. She won't come right out and thank him for sitting with her while everyone is gone or walking her home but it means so much to her and maybe if she kisses him on the cheek, he will understand the words she will probably never say to him.

She wonders if she would be as appreciative if it was Courfeyrac or Graintaire or any of their other friends doing these things instead of Enjolras.

She never kisses him though. She isn't sure how he would react.

Enjolras is the most handsome man of their friends – even more so than Marius because while Marius has boyish, almost childish looks, Enjolras is very much a man – but he never seems to notice the girls who always try to catch his eye while he sits in the café, studying. In fact, if it doesn't have to do with school or his newest social cause to fight for, he doesn't seem to have much interest in or need for it.

Graintaire will tease him and call him a marble statue but there is some truth to it.

She doesn't get embarrassed often but she has a feeling that if she was to kiss Enjolras – even if it would just be on his cheek – she would never be able to look him in the face again and he would probably stop waiting for her and walking her home.

So instead, she smiles at him faintly. "Good night, Enjolras," she says softly.

She hesitates for a moment and then finally turns, unlocking the front door and stepping inside. She looks back and gives him another smile and he is still standing on the sidewalk, watching her.

She wonders if he ever realizes that she seems to work the late shift every night. And if he does realize it, she'll never tell him that it's because she requests it.

…

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_Thank you so much for reading and please comment. _


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